Episode #666 – Devil World (NES)


How could we not make a video about Devil World for our 666th episode? We practically had no choice. There was no better time to take a look back at one of Miyamoto’s first creations for the Famicom. This Pac-Man clone had some features that stood out and made it quite unique. Too unique to be brought to North America, in some ways!

“Exit the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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Nintendo Fans are Running the Company Scott's Thoughts

For a few years now, Nintendo execs have been talking about passing the torch. Younger developers are starting to take the reigns on new intellectual property like Splatoon and ARMS, as well as helping more seasoned devs shake up existing franchises that have stagnated.

These youthful employees are of a new generation, cut from a different cloth than Nintendo management has typically been made up of.

They’re Nintendo fans.

Kids who grew up a couple decades ago have been playing the company’s games their whole life, learned how to design and code, then landed a job at the Big N itself.

There’s a lot of respect for Nintendo’s stable of franchises, yet, the new employees aren’t as emotionally attached. That distinction allows for more change, experimentation, and advancement than we have previously seen.

When Nintendo fans run the company, you start seeing decisions that make more sense (to us fellow Nintendo fans). Things that we would actually come up with! Like naming a two-dimensional 3DS the 2DS. Like bringing back Star Fox 2 on a Classic Edition. Like reproducing the excellent GameCube controller for Super Smash Bros. 4.

We’re in good hands!

TBC 006: Super Mario Odyssey A Spoiler-Safe Discussion on the latest Mario Adventure

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Super Mario Odyssey is Nintendo’s second HUGE sequel installment on Switch. They’ve been knocking it out of the park this year with Switch software support, and we’re here to talk about what Nintendo did correctly, and what they can learn for the future. Join Scott, Ryan, and Glen for their impressions of Mario & Cappy’s cross-kingdom adventure!
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“Escape the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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What’s the History of Mario’s Design?

Heh. Tom Selleck. Heh heh.


#581 – The man, the myth, the mustache… Mario himself. Did you know that Miyamoto originally wanted to use Popeye as a mascot? Do you know who Mario is named after? Prepare for your mind to be blown – we’ve got all the details!

Footage credit: Kotaku

“Escape the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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The Problem with Mechanics-First Development

Star Fox Zero was kind of a disaster.
Miyamoto was tasked with leading the development of a game that would prove the Wii U GamePad’s worth—a controller that featured dual analog sticks, NFC, all the face and shoulder buttons you could ask for, and… oh yeah, a second screen.

The master chef was given an armful of ingredients and told that he had to use them all, and what we got was not very tasty. The result:
Complicated controls. Star Fox games used to be played with a single analog stick that controlled the vehicle’s movements (in all directions) as well as the aiming at the same time. In fact, the SNES accomplished this with only a D-Pad before the 64 version! The Wii U sequel(?) suffered from too many input methods when controls were spread out across both analog sticks and the gyroscope motion controller. It was simply too many leaps at once.
The game was built around its “unique” control scheme and the types of puzzles that accompanied. Some interesting new ideas were birthed, and yes, players could overcome the learning curve and pilot effectively using the GamePad… even enjoy themselves… but for everyone who mastered the game, three other players were turned away by its obtuseness.
Rehashing of story & scenarios. The developers under Miyamoto (with help from Platinum Games) put so much effort into the mechanics of this new Star Fox entry, that they neglected the storytelling and presentation aspect, opting yet again to return to the tired tale of Fox moping about his Dad, Peppy insensitively bringing him up, and killing Andross. The title “Zero” was meant to convey that this was not a true prequel or sequel, but a reimagining of the original.

The developers put so much effort into the mechanics of Star Fox Zero, that they neglected the storytelling and presentation aspect.

And at the end of the day, the gaming industry talked about Star Fox Zero for a few weeks. It got some good reviews from those who put up with its controls, got some bad reviews by the people who did not get it, and then people moved on. It had “zero” staying power, so to speak.
Nintendo fans had been asking for more Star Fox, but we didn’t like the game that we got.

A deeper problem becomes clear: Sometimes, Nintendo will not make a game until they have a concept that uses their controllers in an “interesting” way.
Don’t believe me? This is exactly what is happening with games like F-Zero right now.
An unfortunate quote from the mouth of Miyamoto: “If we create a new type of controller interface, and we find a controller interface that’s particularly suited for F-Zero, then maybe we’ll do something with it in the future.”

This is a problem.

Mechanics-first development lends itself to some glaring issues…

Gimmicky games. There is only so much you can change about how video games are controlled over the span of a few decades. Sure, there is more than one way to skin a cat, but there are not unlimited ways. Analog sticks and buttons have become a mainstay in gaming for a reason: they’re good. Standard controllers have reliable, fast, easy methods of input that do not require huge learning curves. Sticking with the status quo allows players to forget that there is a controller in their hands and become immersed in the game itself. That immersion could manifest in a sense of awe at the world around their character, or even within the game’s story (if the game has a decent story worth paying attention to, that is).
Abandoned franchises. Keeping a control scheme is no reason not to create a sequel. It is absurd.

Nintendo has one of the most valuable stables of intellectual properties and franchises on the planet, yet they historically do not give proper franchise care across the board. Games like the aforementioned F-Zero have not seen a sequel in a decade, and games like Metroid were experimented on so hard that the resulting explosion left the series locked away (until this year’s miraculous E3).

I appreciate Nintendo as innovators. Their foray into the early days of motion-control on Wii paid off with interesting new physical mechanics, and mixing up the Mario formula in Galaxy 1 & 2 resulted in some mind-bending gameplay mechanics.

My advice to Nintendo would be: “Hey—when you have a creative new take, act on it. When you don’t, that’s okay too! Still make games!”
Denying sequels without new mechanics is a double standard. Nintendo does not always adhere to this mechanics-first mantra… they will quickly break it, in fact, if a franchise is printing enough money. New Super Mario Bros. and its rapid accompaniment of successors, much? Fire Emblem and its similarly-played versions, anyone? The Big N did not hold those games back for innovative sentiment.

And I am glad they didn’t, because as Nintendo fans… sometimes we just need MORE of the SAME!
Like Advance Wars.
Like Pikmin (of the “not hey” variety).
The only reasonable conditions that I can see for creating a traditional follow-up are:

  • Include improvements over the last game.
  • Improve the PRESENTATION! (storyline, art style, you know… the things Nintendo usually recycles).

I will address one last thing here: If Nintendo gave us “more of the same,” we wouldn’t have Breath of the Wild.
Good point! This is different: Prior to the revolution of open-world Zelda, the series’ formula was perfected.

Nintendo, Make sequels with the same mechanics until the formula is perfected, THEN innovate!

You will know when the formula is perfected because fans will stop asking for more and they will ask for a change.

E3 2017 Bingo Predictions!

How long do we have to keep being right in order for us to become paid industry analysts that make snarky remakrs for a living?


#528 – Each year, before the Electronic Entertainment Expo, Simeon and Scott take a stab at a swath of predictions! Nintendo will be streaming some bombshell announcements during their press conference / Nintendo Direct, and we’ve created a bingo board to keep track of our correct predictions! Can we score 5 in a row? Middle space is free!

“Escape the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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Speech Jammer Challenge

The bonus materials for Patrons from this episode turned out as pure gold!


Speech jammers are devious contraptions that capture your audio and repeat them back to you via headphones, with a catch… a big delay that makes it very difficult to focus on what is coming out of your mouth. What then, will the results be when Simeon and Scott attempt to read humorous Nintendo-related snippets while hooked up to such an apparatus? Good news; you won’t have to look further than this episode for the answer to that question!

“Escape the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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The Nonspecific Action Figure Special

Everyone, retrieve your Smash Ballots, cross out “Bayonetta” for goodness sake, and write this wonderful man in!


Nonspecific Action Figure, the mysterious mascot that helped introduce us to the Wii U. Quickly forgotten, NSAF didn’t quite get to enjoy his time in the spotlight that he deserved. Well, we’re going to do our best to rectify that issue and spend an entire video talking about him, his plasticness, that mask, those muscles, wings, and sword?! NSAF, who are you? Where did you go? And for the love of Sakurai, WHY AREN’T YOU IN SUPER SMASH BROS?

Shot by Alex Campbell

“Escape the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

What’s At the Nintendo NY Store?

Tickets to NY, please? This is somewhere we can conceivably hit up before our flight to Japan for Super Nintendo World…


It sounds like a dream: an entire multi-level store dedicated to our favorite brand, Nintendo. But it’s not a dream – it used to be the Pokemon Center, then it was Nintendo World, and now it’s Nintendo NY. And in case you were wondering, it’s based in New York. This magical retailer is run by Nintendo staff, and is decorated to the nines in Nintendo themed goodness! Baby teethers? Check. Games playable before they are released? Check. Guest appearances from famous Nintendo staff? Check. We need to visit this place.

Shot by Alex Campbell

“Escape the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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Miyamoto’s High and Low Points

For every time he raised the Master Sword skyward, he is also waved an imaginary flute around by the end of a Wii Remote…


Shigeru Miyamoto is a wonderful man to whom we owe a great debt of gratitude. However, in his many years as part of the game industry, he has had plenty of time to make a few missteps. And they were MAJOR. Miyamoto is someone who should be celebrated but not worshiped as perfect. Oh no – this is one developer who has seen the gamut of success and failure! Join Simeon and Scott as they explore the Japanese developer and creator of Mario’s history, highlighting the lows and the highs.

Shot by Alex Campbell

“Escape the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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There was A Mario Paint 3D?!

As we always love to remind you, look up the Donald Trump / Mario face-puller mash-up.


Another canceled game from the mysterious mind of Miyamoto has come to light! It was an N64 follow-up game to the SNES Mario Paint. How intriguing!

Shot by Alex Campbell

“Escape the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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The Best & Craziest Miyamoto Quotes

It’s a very scary story.


The esteemed Miyamoto-San has not only bestowed a wonderful library of imaginative games upon us, but he has also provided us with some great words of wisdom… and silliness… here are some of our favorite Shigeru Miyamoto quotes!

Shot by Alex Campbell

“Reformat” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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